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Tomorrow’s Geneva Summit: Assuring Bosnia’s Elections
By Dan DeLuce
Washington has been feverishly working to resolve what it considers one of the biggest threats to the polls -- Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's refusal to relinquish power. Instead of stepping down as required by the Dayton peace accord, the indicted war criminal and ultra-nationalist has reasserted his authority. Embarrassed Western powers have been pleading with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to oust his former protege.
It remains unclear what exactly the West will receive in return for easing its insistence on Karadzic's extradition, but diplomats say Washington is willing to settle for Karadzic staying out of public view. Diplomats say Washington realises Milosevic, for domestic political reasons, has difficulty in handing over Karadzic or Serb army chief General Ratko Mladic to the U.N. tribunal.
A NATO manhunt to arrest the suspected war criminals would risk casualties, apparently an uncomfortable gamble for President Bill Clinton with U.S. elections only months away. Western demands to remove Karadzic have only served to revive his popularity, giving him a kind of martyr status among ordinary Bosnian Serbs, political analysts say. Even if Milosevic manages to oust Karadzic, analysts say hardliners who share his goal of a permanent ethnic partition in Bosnia remain firmly in control on Serb territory.
Vague promises about Karadzic keeping a low-profile may not be enough to satisfy the Muslim-Croat federation, which covers half of Bosnia under the peace accord. Angry over Karadzic's attempts to block refugees from returning to their homes and obstruct the country's reintegration, Muslim members of the Bosnian government have threatened to boycott post-war elections. The U.S. has some leverage over the Muslims in the form of a promised $200 million package to arm and train the Muslim-Croat army.
U.S. diplomats are also struggling to breathe life into the uneasy Muslim-Croat alliance, which has been paralysed by disputes over power-sharing.
The Bosnia elections are considered crucial to the success of the U.S.-brokered peace accord, which ended 3½ years of war between Orthodox Christian Serbs, Bosnian Muslims and Roman Catholic Croats. Voters are supposed to elect joint executive and legislative bodies that would govern Bosnia as a loose union comprised of Serb and Muslim-Croat entities.
Although international monitors warn that elections will be a sham unless ruling parties allow free access to media and free movement for civilians, the U.S. and its European partners are anxious the ballot takes place on schedule. |
BELGRADE, June 1 (Reuters) - The United States convenes a meeting of Balkan leaders in Geneva on Sunday determined to ensure post-war elections in Bosnia go ahead as planned despite problems posed by hardline Serb nationalists. U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher will host the day-long session of talks to push the presidents of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia to make good on pledges that fair elections are held by mid-September in Bosnia.
U.S. envoy John Kornblum met Milosevic on Friday and said the patron of the Bosnian Serbs had promised to "demonstrate" in Geneva that Karadzic was longer in charge. In the meantime, the United States and its allies backed way from previous demands for the prompt extradition of Karadzic and his army commander to face trial before the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Berserkistan, May 31 · Warren Christopher to Intervene at Talks in Geneva
Berserkistan, May 31 · US: Cost Cost of Capturing Karadzic, Mladic Too Great
Berserkistan, May 30 · EU Administrator Sets Mostar Elections for June 30
U.S. State Department Policy on Bosnia
Warren Christopher Biography
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